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Araceae
Amorphophallus aphyllus (Hook.) Hutch.
SUMMARY
Tuber disciform, very flat, broadly elliptic (‘oval’) from above, 6-30 x 2-6 cm, sometimes angular, surface smooth, produces loosely dispersed small, cuneiform or globose offsets LEAF 50-110 cm tall, developing after the inflorescence. Petiole 30-90 x 1-2.5 cm, basally brown purple, becoming paler further up, then pale green, sometimes a bit spotted and stripey. Blade 30-80 cm in diameter, main and end segments usually only forked into two, rachis narrowly cuneiformly winged (‘schmal keilförmig geflügelt’); terminal leaflets elongate to lanceolate, 10-30 x 0.8-2 cm, without distinct tip, pale green, margin smooth. Cataphylls 3-4, the inner one longer than the peduncle, 10-20, 5-10, 2-3.5 and 1-1.5 cm long, light pink, veins darker, often with small greenish spots, membranous. INFLORESCENCE usually shortly to moderately stipitate, appearing before the leaf. Peduncle 5-12(-18) cm long, pale green, sometimes with small white spots, erect, solitary. Spathe 6-25 cm long; divided into a cylindrical-ovoid (‘oval’) to cylindrical tube and an open limb by a slight, assymetric constriction; appears fleshy. Tube cylindrical to ovoid (‘oval’), 3-10(-15) x 2-5 cm; whitish to cream or greenish on the outside; inside, basally smooth, whitish to cream background with broad, dark purple, longitudinal stripes, these attenuate cuneiformly towards the base (‘diese verjüngen sich basal keilförmig’). Open limb erect; somewhat bulging outward; 2-10 x 3-8 cm; bluntly and triangularly acute on one side; outside dark red brown, purple to blackish with scattered whitish spots or spots numerous and covering a larger area; inside [coloured] as the tube, with the purple longitudinal stripes widening towards the margin; margin usually smooth or slightly undulate. Spadix stipitate for 1 cm, 5-23 cm long, usually as long as the spathe, protruding from the tilted side of the limb. Pistillate zone slightly obconic, 0.8-3 x 0.7-1.5 cm, flowers congested. Staminate zone obconic, 1.1-4 x 1-3 cm, flowers congested. Appendix stout, wide, broadly elliptic (‘oval’) in cross section, shortly conical to rounded, 3-16 cm long, 2-4 cm in diameter at the base, 4-8 cm in diameter in the middle, black-purple, rugulose, with longitudinal furrows distributed across the whole surface, constricted basally. Staminodes rare in the basal zone of the appendix, as small, congested warts; sterile zone between pistillate and staminate zone absent; ratio of pistillate to staminate zone 0.5-0.8 : 1. Pistillate flowers 3-5 mm long; ovary elongate to ovoid, 1-2 x 1-1.5 mm, unilocular, pale green to green, style 1-2 mm long, clearly delimited from the ovary, dark green; stigma unlobed, circular from above, slightly conical from the side, 1 mm in diameter, papillose, whitish to cream. Staminate flowers 1-1.5 mm long; anthers free, unregularly cubic, light purple; filaments short, free, < 0.5 mm long; pores apical, two round pores visible per thecae; thecae cylindrical; connective broad, purple. INFRUCTESCENCE stalk 4-6 x longer than the peduncle, 20-50 cm long, 0.8-2 cm in diameter; infructescence stipitate for 1 cm, 4-6 x 3-6 cm, cylindrical to conical, often with the remains of the appendix and spathe. Berries elongate to ovoid (‘oval’), 0.6-1.6 x 0.3-0.6 cm, single seeded, yellow, often sterile; seeds elongate 0.8-0.6 x 0.4 cm, rough, cream. Pollen orange, echinate, 23.6-34.8 x 23.6-28.1tm, circular, inaperturate. Smell unknown.